India women 281 for 4 (Kaur 171*, Raj 36) beat Australia women (Villani 75, Perry 38, Deepti 3-59, Pandey 2-17 ) by by 36 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Harmanpreet Kaur kept peppering the arc between midwicket and long-on during her whirlwind hundred © Getty Images
A heavy downpour reduced the semi-final to a 42-over contest, but such was Harmanpreet Kaur‘s relentless assault that she had enough time to reel off 171 not out off 115 balls – the third-highest score in a World Cup and fifth highest overall. She biffed 20 fours and seven sixes – injured wrist and all – which KO’d defending champions Australia, and vaulted India into their second World Cup final.
Arriving at the crease with her team wobbling at 35 for 2 in 9.2 overs, Kaur sensibly saw off the new ball under overcast conditions before unleashing her wrath on Australia. Kaur reached her first fifty off 64 balls, and the acceleration could not have been starker. She zoomed to her second fifty off just 26 balls, and her third off nine fewer balls. It wasn’t only Australia who felt the wrath of Kaur.
After working legspinner Kristen Breams to deep midwicket at the end of the 35th over, Kaur immediately called for two, but Deepti Sharma stopped in the middle, which resulted in a mix-up. Both batsmen ultimately dived desperately, beat a relay throw, and completed the double, which gave Kaur her third ODI hundred. An infuriated Kaur did not celebrate, however. Instead, she flung her helmet onto the turf and fired verbal volleys at her partner. Then she kept firing boundaries in the arc between midwicket and long-on. India sailed to 281 for 4, but that appeared smaller when Elyse Villani, slinking around in the crease, found the boundary with Kaur-esque regularity in the chase. Villani could not do it long enough and her dismissal set in motion a collapse: Australia lost 6 for 43. Alex Blackwell’s late blitz – 90 off 56 balls – threatened a jailbreak, but Deepti knocked over her leg stump to lock India’s place in the Lord’s final.
Full report to follow
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo